What Does a Drug Test in a Treatment Facility Tell the Staff?

Drug testing is a key part of any drug rehab treatment program. It’s the only way to be sure that clients are in compliance with the facility’s rules about drug use. While drugs can be detected in hair, saliva, blood, body tissues and urine, urinalysis is the most common drug test used in drug treatment facilities, the medical establishment and law enforcement. When you first arrive at a residential rehab, you will be asked to submit a urine sample for drug testing. This article will cover some of the basic principles of drug urinalysis testing, often called a UA. It will also help to answer this question: What does a drug test in a treatment facility tell the staff?

The Entry Interview

When you first enter a residential drug rehab, staff will ask you many questions about your health and prior drug use. All residential programs require a period of complete abstinence from all drugs of abuse before you can begin the recovery phase of your treatment. The first phase is always detox. This detox may be accomplished in a number of ways. The facility may offer detox services in a unit attached to it. You may have first completed detox elsewhere. You may have even done detox by yourself in a process known as cold turkey. This isn’t advisable and may not be safe, but some people manage it. The point is, a certain drug-free time period, usually at least 10 days, must be completed before further treatment can begin. The person must be clear-minded and free of any kind of withdrawal symptoms. Any medical detox with licensed medical staff will be able to provide a safe, comfortable detox from any drug of abuse.

Let’s start with the first day of rehab. Let’s say you have completed detox elsewhere and you let the rehab staff know this. They will want proof and will ask you to provide your urine sample. The staff will give you a small plastic cup with your name and information printed or typed on a label. Make sure the information is correct. Never turn in a sample that is not clearly and correctly marked, so there is no mistake. The cup will probably have markings encircling it with different colored squares. Each square represents a drug or drug class and will be activated with a color change if the represented drug is present. One of the squares is for temperature.

More About Drug Tests

A urine sample must fall within a narrow temperature range, usually 91 to 99 degrees. If it doesn’t, it indicates tampering and will not be accepted. Be advised that all urine testing has built-in tampering safeguards. For example, if you try to dilute the sample with water, even a tiny bit, the laboratory can tell. Depending on the facility, a staff member of your sex may enter the bathroom with you for security reasons. This is to ensure that the sample is really yours and not substituted somehow. Believe it or not, you can buy special kits online for this very purpose! There are also products sold online and in head shops that claim to either clean the urine of drugs or mask them, preventing detection. These often fail and may be discovered by the lab.

Drug Test Information

A UA will tell the staff which drugs of abuse you have used recently. However, recently is a relative word, and not all drugs remain detectable for the same period of time. The other major factor is the test’s sensitivity level, which is called a threshold. Some tests may detect much lower amounts of drugs than others. UA tests all look for metabolites. Metabolites are chemical compounds that form when a drug is broken down by the body. For example, oxycodone’s major metabolite is oxymorphone. Codeine will show as morphine. Most UA tests used by drug rehabs will test for 10 drugs of abuse:

  • Opiates
  • Oxycodone
  • Amphetamines
  • Methadone
  • Cocaine
  • Barbiturates
  • THC
  • MDMA (“Molly”)
  • Benzodiazepines
  • Phencyclidine (PCP)

Most of the above drugs remain present in urine at typical threshold levels for three to five days. Most opioids are short-acting by nature and don’t hang around for very long. One notable exception is the synthetic opioid methadone. A single dose may be detected for up to two weeks. Chronic use may remain above threshold levels for a month and longer. Benzodiazepines are also remarkably tenacious. A single five-milligram dose of diazepam may still be detected as much as two weeks later. THC gets incorporated into the body’s fat cells and can linger at detectable levels for a month, six weeks and even longer.

Warning: Poppy Seeds

Poppy seeds can cause a positive result for morphine. This is because the tiny seeds can become coated with traces of morphine while they are encased in the poppy flower seed pod. Some very low threshold drug tests may indeed pick up this trace of morphine. The same is true if you eat a lot of them, such as the amounts present in certain ethnic baked goods. Avoid poppy seeds until you’re no longer subject to drug testing.

We Can Help

If you’re concerned about drug use and would like more information about drug rehab, we have professional drug counselors on staff here to help you with that. Just call us anytime at 844-844-3463, and we would be happy to assist you.